Nina and Naia Helms are in their playroom, in front of a tub of Barbie dolls.
"We have a whole lot of different barbies," said 10-year-old Nina.
"A whole lot," said Naia, who is 4.
Nina and Naia are of mixed race. Their mother is African American, their father is white. Nina pulls out a light-skinned black barbie with short, closely cropped hair. It comes with wigs you can put on it, but she opts not to.
"I like her without the hair better," Nina said. "She kind of reminds me of my mom. When she has the hair off, she kind of has the same skin color as my mom and the same hair length."
Nikki Helms is the girls' mother. She and her husband, Nowell, have consciously purchased dolls of all colors for the girls.
"We try and choose dolls that represent the people in our house," said Nikki Helms.
"That’s why some of the dolls have red hair, or are darker skinned, have long hair or short hair. There are different skin tones and different hair textures that are happening, as much as we can find anyway."
"They need to see themselves reflected in the toys that they play with as well as their family," Nikki Helms said.
Today, the couple are able to find dolls of different ethnicities and colors. Ten years ago, it would have been harder — 100 years ago? Practically impossible. Back then, if a person wanted a black doll that wasn’t an offensive, caricatured version of blackness, it had to be homemade.
Examples of handmade black dolls, dating as far back as the mid-1800s, are on view at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park.
"It’s a fascinating look into our past and into the social history of the time," said Christine Knoke, chief curator at the Mingei.
There are 125 dolls in the exhibit, both male and female. Some are dressed in fancy clothes, others in plain dresses or work clothes. They were made with scraps of materials and cloth. "We see early searsucker, velvets, and lace," said Knoke. "There would have been remnants used so perhaps from a sewing project, perhaps curtains, old clothing, or aprons."
The doll’s eyes are stitched or made with buttons. In some cases, a coconut was used for a head. Its hair is made with everything from yarn to animal fur. The materials help date the dolls, but there is little information about who made them.
"In the vast majority of cases, I think we can assume these are African American women who are making these dolls and probably making these dolls for family members," said Rebecca Plant, associate professor of history at University of California, San Diego. It's also fair to assume many of those women were slaves at the time, or working for white families.
In some cases though, the dolls could have been made by black women for the white children in their charge. Vintage photographs in the exhibit show white children holding black dolls, often lovingly. In one, a white child grasps the hand of her black doll.
But Plant said not to read too much into that. Dolls inspire affection, but they are also props for children to dramatize the world around them.
"We have examples where abolitionists would write about seeing their children or other white children enacting scenes of racial violence and racial abuse," Plant said. "Children when they play, they reenact the social situation that they perceive, so I think we can assume that scenes of dominance were part of this play."
The dolls on view at the Mingei belong to collector Deborah Neff. She’s been building her collection for 20 years. She says she’s drawn to their expressiveness. They represent resourcefulness and craftsmanship against great odds. And she says, the dolls were likely cherished.
"A child in the 19th century could very well have only one doll. One toy, one possession. Nothing else," Neff said.
"So the importance of making them is really profound."
San Diegan Cara Mark recently spent a couple of hours walking through the exhibit. She’s black and her family is from the south. It was an emotional experience for her.
"I got a little weepy in some parts thinking about all the history that’s attached to the dolls," Mark said.
It’s healthy for children of color to have black and brown dolls, Mark said.
"It helps with a child’s self esteem," she said.
"They feel like it’s OK to look the way they do and they’ll be more comfortable with themselves."
"Black Dolls" is on view through July 5 at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park.
